Guyana’s Golden Jaguars quest to clinch a spot in the 2010 World Cup football finals in South Africa will begin in earnest in June at the start of the Second Stage of the CONCACAF (The Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Football) qualification series.
The Golden Jaguars are named among 13 seeded countries that have drawn byes to the second stage; the other countries are Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States.
The top three teams from the CONCACAF Final Round in 2009 will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
CONCACAF’s fourth-placed finisher will play off with CONMEBOL’s fifth-placed team in a home-and-away series for one of the last berths to the World Cup finals.
Stage one of the CONCACAF playoff will kick off on Sunday with Bermuda taking on the Cayman Islands in a home and away elimination series at Hamilton’s National Sports Centre. The first-leg encounters continue next Friday with six more match-ups starting with Dominica taking on Barbados at the Windsor Park Stadium in Roseau, while Aruba faces Antigua & Barbuda at the Guillermo Trinidad Sports Centre, in Oranjestad.
Turks & Caicos Islands will be hosting their first ever CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying game at the Providenciales’ National Stadium when they meet St. Lucia, while Belize will be the home team when they square off against St. Kitts & Nevis at the Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City, a neutral venue.
El Salvador and Nicaragua will be hosting Anguilla and Netherlands Antilles at San Salvador’s Estadio Cuscatlan and Estadio Cacique Diriangen in Diriamba, respectively also next Friday.
Rounding out the first-leg encounters will be the British Virgin Islands (BVI) battling against the Bahamas at the BFA National Centre in Nassau on 26 March.
The single elimination match-ups between Puerto Rico – Dominican Republic, Grenada – US Virgin Islands, and Montserrat – Suriname will take place during the second-leg encounters for Stage 1 on 26 March.
The remaining second-leg encounters for Stage 1 of CONCACAF World Cup Qualification are scheduled for 26-30 March.
